Editor’s note: This is the second article in a two-part series on the origins and evolution of the DPRK’s athletics system. The first part can be read here.

After returning to international sporting competitions last year, North Korea looks set to allow foreign athletes to enter the country for the first time since before the pandemic, with an Olympic qualifying match against Japan’s women’s soccer team scheduled for February in Pyongyang.

The DPRK hardly has a reputation as a sports mecca, but the country has pushed to host international competitions since as far back as the 1970s, under an